1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to engine test stands, and more particularly to clamps on carriage support rollers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There is a standard rail system that has been adopted and used in the aircraft industry for the mounting of aircraft jet engines for handling, maintenance, test and general dealing with such engines. This rail system includes a pair of I-section rails which are horizontally spaced. Carriages are mounted to these rails. The carriages are mounted by the use of roller adapters. These adapters make it easy to mount the carriage, regardless of its configuration. The rollers roll on the rails but can be easily clamped to the rails at any desired location. Val Industries, Inc., the assignee of the present application, has manufactured roller adapters for the above purposes for many years.
The advantage of the roller adapters manufactured by Val has been the fact that they could be securely clamped to the rails by the use of hand operated knobs, and did not need to have wrenches applied to the clamps to do the job. Nevertheless it has been found that certain engines, while under test, develop so much thrust that movement of the adaptors along the rails may occur, even though the clamps remain tight. It was discovered that the reason for this, was a type of failure of the rail. The clamps could actually shear metal from the underside of the rail flange to which they were secured, and thereby enable themselves to slide along the rail. The present invention is addressed to solving this problem.